Israeli forces thrust deep into northern Gaza, raze parts of Jabalia camp

Israeli forces thrust deeper into the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, laying waste to residential districts with tank and air bombardments, residents have said, while Israeli air strikes killed at least five people in the southern city of Rafah.

In Jabalia, a sprawling refugee camp built for displaced civilians 75 years ago, the Israeli forces used bulldozers to clear shops and property near the local market, residents said on Tuesday, in a military offensive that began almost two weeks ago.

Israel said it has returned to the camp, where it had claimed to have dismantled Hamas months ago, to prevent the group that controls Gaza from regrouping.

Simultaneous Israeli assaults on the northern and southern edges of Gaza this month have caused a new exodus of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing their homes, and sharply restricted the flow of aid, raising the risk of famine.

The health authorities and Gaza Civil Emergency Service said dozens of bodies were trapped under the rubble of houses and on the roads in Jabalia, but were out of reach of rescue teams.

"Israel is destroying the camp on the heads of the people, the bombardment never stops, and the world is calling for more food to enter Gaza. We want to spare lives not extra food," said Abu El Nasser, a resident of Jabalia, who fled to Gaza City.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, which is now in its eighth month, according to the health ministry in Gaza. At least 10,000 others are missing and believed to be trapped under destroyed buildings, it says.

The war has devastated the overcrowded coastal enclave, destroying houses, schools and hospitals and creating a dire humanitarian crisis.

Residents and medical officials said Israeli tanks were besieging the al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia for the third day, and officials at Kamal Adwan Hospital in nearby Beit Lahiya said they were evacuating patients after it was hit by Israeli fire.

More deaths

In the south, air strikes killed three children in a house in Khan Younis and at least five people including three children in a home in Rafah.

East of Khan Younis, residents said they were fleeing Khuzaa town after Israeli troops began an incursion on the eastern edge of the territory, bulldozing across the border fence.

"Bombing everywhere, people are leaving in panic. It was a surprising incursion," one resident from Khuzaa said as he and his family were leaving.

Israel is pushing on with its operations in Rafah on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, where more than half of the territory's 2.3 million population had sought refuge after being displaced from areas further north.

UNRWA, the main United Nations agency in Gaza, estimated as of Monday that more 800,000 had fled since Israel began targeting the city in early May, despite international pleas for restraint over concern about civilian casualties.

Israel has pledged to continue with the Rafah assault to root out what it says are four remaining battalions of Hamas holed up there. Tanks made incursions into the eastern Rafah suburbs of Jeneina, Al Salam, and Brazil, according to residents.